nc-90m rebattery

I have been a member of this site for awhile, I just found out, so I will see if any one here has information.

I bought a Minolta Maxxum 9000 earlier this year, on a whim, and got a LOT of stuff with it.

It has the MD-90 motor drive with both a AA battery pack and the NC-90M NiCad pack that is dead.

 

Now I can use it as is but it would be nice to get the NC pack functioning again.

I took it to Batteries Plus that redid my Leica R8 motor-drive packs but they said they cannot get the cell for the Minolta pack.

 

Do any of you gents know of a place that does this type of work.

Thank you for your time.

Butch

Doesn't it work just using AA size rechargeable cells in place of alkalines?

 

If so, then why bother with the NiCd pack?

 

I've re-celled many a NiCd pack (looking at you, Metz). They're usually a complete pain to do, and with gear of a certain age, usually a bit of a waste of time and money too.

 

The original NiCd cells have a pathetic capacity and need almost constant charging to ensure they'll work when needed. Modern 'ready to use' NiMH cells are much better, with a higher capacity and lower self-discharge. However, they're only available with solder tags in a limited range of modern sizes - triple A, double A, sub-C, C and D being the most common, with some N and larger sizes available at a premium price. (Most D size rechargeable cells these days are simply a C cell within a larger shell, and can be replaced with C cells packed out, to no detriment.)

 

Add on the cost of paying someone to replace the cells, and you're looking at something not worth its price IMO.

This was raised on dyxum.com recently (see MD-90 NC-90M batter pack - Dyxum), which suggests you need N-cells. It's worth looking at the links referenced there for health-warnings, etc.